Thursday, 2 February 2017

Media Quotes of the Week: From 'humiliated' US media should shut up to Greenslade's greatest hits

White House strategist Stephen Bannon in an interview with the New York Times: “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while...The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump on Twitter: "The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!...Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST."

Roger Cohen in the New York Times: "From Trump’s White House there now seeps a kind of ignorance mixed with vulgarity and topped with meanness that I find impossible to wash from my skin. I wake up to its oleaginous texture."

Rod Liddle, quoted by the Guardian, on the appointment of Sarah Sands as editor of Radio 4's Today programme: “The outside viewpoint is crucial, especially at a time when politics has moved in a direction that the BBC has neither anticipated nor welcomed. Sarah’s right-ish and comes with a strong journalistic background in print, which is where the best journalism is.”

The Times [£] in a leader: "The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the court set up to adjudicate on claims of official misuse of surveillance powers, handed down a withering judgment on the conduct of Cleveland police. Five adjudicators found that the force broke the law on multiple occasions when spying on the communications data of a whistleblower complaining about racial discrimination within the service, and also of a number of journalists. The reason Cleveland police had undertaken this surveillance was not to combat serious crime but to prevent their own embarrassment."

BBC News reports: "The proprietor of the Daily Mail told its editor that David Cameron pressed for him to be sacked during the EU referendum, BBC Newsnight has learned. Lord Rothermere told Paul Dacre the prime minister urged him to rein in his pro-Brexit editor, then suggested he sack him, a source told the BBC."

David Yelland ‏@davidyelland on Twitter: "Wish I had a Euro for every person of influence whose asked Jonathan Rothermere to sack or retire Paul Dacre. Cameron wasn't alone or first."

Fraser Nelson on his Spectator blog on the magazine's former editor Alexander Chancellor: "The magazine exists, today, because of him. Those of us who work in The Spectator’s offices are there because of him. What readers know as the Spectator magic was created by him. It’s hard to overstate how much we owe him."

Roy Greenslade about ending his MediaGuardian blog, in an interview with Press Gazette: “Right back to 1992 I found that journalists, editors and owners are the thinnest skinned people in the world. Some of them issue legal threats and I think to myself how disgraceful that they should reach for libel laws which then they complain about being an inhibition to their own freedom."

Roy Greenslade's greatest hits:

Roy Greenslade on MediaGurdian on steep cover price rises on some of Newsquest's regional newspapers: "You have to hand it to Newsquest/Gannett. They certainly know how to milk a cow to death."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on the way the publisher of the Mirror gave up a source to police: "Trinity Mirror has no right to own newspapers. Its board should resign."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on the future of newspapers: "It is time to recognise that the whole UK newspaper industry is heading for a cliff fall, that tipping point when there is no hope of a reversal of fortune."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on staff cuts at local papers: "Local paper publishers think it’s magic that they can produce papers on such slim staffs. I think it’s tragic because they are treating their audiences to a fake product."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on big digital companies taking advertising from the press: "The digital giants are sucking up advertising, which is threatening the viability of newspapers. More pertinently, and much more significantly, it is threatening journalism itself."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on editorial cutbacks: "No publisher, despite differing motivations, can escape the commercial effects of a technological revolution that is in the process of destroying the funding mechanism that has underpinned newspaper companies for more than 150 years. Journalists are aware of this but tend to turn a blind eye to reality. They blame publishers for the cutbacks, or at least, the way those cutbacks are carried out."

Roy Greenslade on Media Guardian on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa): "Ripa was supposed to protect national security and detect crime while preventing disorder and protecting public health. Its misuse and abuse inhibits journalists from acting on behalf of the public and therefore threatens our civil liberties."

Roy Greenslade on Media Guardian on privacy and the media: "It is time for the responsible, serious section of the British press to disengage from any coalition with the popular newspapers. The willingness to ignore their misconduct has led us all astray and increased the public's lack of trust in all journalism."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on Labour's defeat at the General Election: "As the Labour party tears itself apart trying to come to terms with its general election performance, it should understand this reality: the right-wing press was overwhelmingly responsible for its defeat."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on the Independent: "It is hard to imagine anyone buying The Independent and therefore places the paper's future existence in jeopardy. The fact that its owner has failed to find a buyer after months of seeking one suggest that its newsprint days are coming to an end. Though the financial losses have been significantly reduced over the past three years - down from more than £20m to just below £9m - the Indy's circulation has fallen to a level that no longer makes the paper a viable proposition."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on bullying: "Outsiders may wonder why adults put up with the MacKenzies and Dacres. The obvious answer is that they control people's livelihoods. It is a case of accepting it or getting out (and not "getting in" anywhere else)."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on subbing hubs: " 'Remote subbing' can work (and has worked). But I just wish that it didn't have to mean a reduction in editorial staff. Newspapers are fond of saying that there should be more bobbies on the beat (rather than at the station). The analogy should apply to papers. Saving desk jobs by utilising new technology is fine. But that should mean getting more reporters on to the streets (well, on the phone, at the computer, wherever necessary). It's just important to have more of them because news-gathering is the name of our game."

Roy Greenslade on MediaGuardian on Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks: "Edward Snowden is an heroic whistleblower. The journalist who wrote his story, Glenn Greenwald, was responsible for breaking one of the world's greatest exclusives. Should we journalists, as a community, not be rallying to their cause rather than looking the other way?"

And finally...

Roy Greenslade quoted by Press Gazette: “I am sad to be giving up the blog, but I think the work of holding newspapers – their owners, controllers, editors and journalists – to account remains vital because they still set the daily agenda and therefore remain hugely influential."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery